Evenk Berry Picker Update

Two years ago, I made a makeshift Evenk berry picker when out in a woods, inspired by an article on a Swedish site and later also by Ray Mears in a tv-series. I was surprised by it's efficiency, but the workmanship didn't hold up for long.

I have been thinking about making a new one for a long time, even gathered the bark and the spruce root, but it wasn't until there recently was announced a berry picker contest on bcuk that I got the neccesary kick in the behind.

What I have done yet is to gather the materials and to make the rim. This was done quite a while ago, this summer. The rim is of willow and could with advantage have been of another, more sturdy material, but in the very far north that is one of the few materials available. The willow is so weak in that after it had been split and thinned, I wrapped the opposite half on as a support. The bark is strong, taking away the strain on the back and the opposite half evened out the compression.

Compression fractures developed in one place, and that place was straightened with boiled water. To keep it firm until it dried, I bound down a bone piece with some rawhide.

Skin Pouch Update

To make the pouch easier to tie off, I made a lining of roe deer buckskin. The skin is cut against a board. Keep in mind that it is easier to cut reliably in a pushing motion rather than pulling.














The sinew thread is single ply strands from reindeer backstrap sinew. It is twisted like this to keep it together. For longer, stronger threads I'd use two ply threads, but for this project that wasn't needed.














The small tear down in the bottom is sewn tight with an antler needle. For this I used a simple overhand stitch. For the rest I used running, double stitches.














On the top of the lining I sewed in a short braided cord of elm bark to tie off the opening of the pouch. The knot here is excellent for tying off the end of a seam.














The finished result: A tinder pouch.

Skin Pouch Update

Have done some major progress on the skin pouch today. But I'll sum it up tomorrow in a longer post.

Skin Pouch Update

After having soaked the pouch in a lake an dried it again, the tannin smell is pretty much gone now. The skin has been oiled and was today softened by breaking it in. It takes time. To get a more even result I would use a sharp, shredding object, but due to the risks of tearing the thin skin and that the hair will be out anyway, I omitted this step.














The rough, hard edge on the thicker skin on the "rim" is cut off and evened.














All that is left now is to sew up a hole and a tear. I also want to make a buckskin lining on it if I have enough scraps left. It will be wrung back for sewing, but for this picture it has been left hair out, like it will be in the end.














This is just the tip of the ear. I am also thinking that skinning the whole ear would make easy, quick to make mittens. Especially smaller roe deer ones for children.

Elm Bow Update

I was aiming at getting a 60 pounder out of this stave. Due to a couple of bad decisions when I removed the bulk of the wood, I may be ending up with a 40 pounder. Not what I want, but it'll do until I make another one.

To day I started some initial floor tillering. It seems like the wood may be a month or so from being totally dry, but I got a feel of it still. The reason why I don't think it is totally dry is because it doesn't snap back, but retreats slowly. The tillering is done by watching the curve while flexing it onto the ground.

The adjustment is made by scraping with a sharp flake on the stiffest spots. Can't say I am as enthusiastic in regards to this bow anymore, but I will follow it through. Who knows, some extra seasoning, may add a few pounds of draw weight.

Pack Frame Update

An advice for those who are going to make this themselves: Mortise the boards into the frame while the frame is still green. The hazel become remarkably hard to work after it has dried, mortising properly is next to impossible. What I did was to plane the surface down to make it flat and narrower, so that the cordage grips binds the boards more securely to the frame.














Tie the boards down very hard. Preferably with wet cordage, so that it will tighten up when drying and not loosen again when it becomes wet. I may have to redo just that, if it becomes a problem.














The straps are tied under the boards and the frame is now finished.

Pack Frame Update

Larch is not found naturally in Norway, but since I (unfortunately) live in a city at the moment, a lot of trees that are not natural is to be found there. Since larch was used on the original, I decided to go for this tree.


















Larch is supposed to be exeptionally easy to split. That has to be trees with denser growth rings than this specimen. This one was quite hard to split properly, but the results were satisfactory. There was also a slight twist in the grain. But not more than I was able to even out on the planing.














Here my daughter seems to be working on something. Maybe she has some plans for the split log too.


















Planing the planks thin and even takes a lot of time. Much more than one would expect it to. I used the big flakes I got from Kevin as drawknives and planers, alternating sides avoid digging into the twisted grain.














The ends were evened and notches were cut. To make sure that the frame isn't going to spread, one of the two boards are notched.


















The only remaining task is now to mortise the frame and lash on the boards.

The Hoko Knife

Having seen the hoko knife in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology a few years back, I had forgotten about it until Diederik Pomstra showed me one he had made. Mine I made rather large and crude. I would have been much more gainly if it was smaller. But it definately was quick to make. Taking the (rather poor, I know) photos took longer.

The advantages with this type of knife:

• Gives you leverage when using rather small blades.
• No need for retouching to protect your hands. That saves on edges, which you need as you can get of in an as stone poor place as this.
• Quicker than hafting in the regular fashion.

First, I broke off a piece of willow and split it down the middle just by seperating the fibres from the break. Don't split it all the way through. It will be useful to have the attached still connected to clamp the blade in place.














Start the wrapping by inserting the willow branch into the crack, on the inner side of the blade. Make a few turns around on that side before taking a wrap over the backside of the blade.














Wrap the other end tightly down to clamp the blade properly. Secure the small willow branch wrap by inserting it into the crack twice.














Not exactly a work of art, but very handy. And disposable too.

Ice Pick Update

Finally I have finished this project. I did it very simply this time, as it is just meant to be a temporary haft so I didn't even use the holes. I simply cut down a piece of willow with my antler axe and split it with my antler wedge.


















The head is inserted into the crack and the sinew rope is wound around it. To keep it from wobbeling in the crack, wind around the head as shown in this rather poor drawing.
















The pick in use.

Fishing Line Update

Not making much progress on anything today, I thought I'd post on pretty much the only primitive thing I did today. The rest of the elm bark I had from making the straps to the pack-frame will go into make a braided fishing line.

I need more fishinglines when the ice fishing season starts soon (very late this year). I also will need them on my expedition this summer.

The process is simple. The sheets are seperated into smaller sheets.














The sheets are plaited into a braid. It is very slow work. But the result is a very strong line.

Pack Frame Update

Haven't done much today really. But to my surprise I found that my elm bark, which has been soaking in a stream for 5 days, had dried completely over night. Instead of turning brittle, as unsoaked bark invariably does, it remained fairly supple. Below: bark soaking in the sink.














I wetted the bark and tore strips in the width I felt was best suited and braided two straps. They are very strong, but as I ran out of the best bark I feel that the first one was slightly better looking than the second one.


















Below is a closeup. As you can see the right piece is more even than the left one.

Ground Stone Axe Update

How long grinding the edge of a stone axe takes is to a great degree determined by the quality of your abrading stone. Mine happens to be very good, so the process is quite fast. When I abrade edges on stone, I usually start by making a "half" bevel. That is, I start grinding the sides first, more or less to the angle I want the bit of the axe go at in the end.














When I have done that I start grinding much more steeply to even out any dips in the front. In this particular piece there was a rather deep flake scar in the front from testing the blank's integrity.














When the edge is totally even, the most timeconsuming part begins. Narrowing the bit to a usable bevel takes quite a while. Work systematically and if unmotivated, take a look on the progress. I think you'll be surprised of how quick it really is. I used only about 1,5 hours on the bit of this particular axe.














The last task on this piece is to make the handle. A task I fear will take longer than all of the stonework combined.

Skin Pouch Update

Just a quick update on the skin pouch. I took the thinner ear, plus some scraps out of the solution today as it has taken some colour and probably is sufficiently tanned for the use I intend for it.

It now hangs to dry, I don't know how long that will take, but likely in the region of a week.

Pack Frame Update

Inspired by Oetzi's packframe I have decided to make one for myself. Hazel is a wood with most excellent bending qualities and was the wood used in the original. Consequently I chose to use this wood as well. Cutting down the tree is simple enough, but I struck stone with my antler axe, giving it a serious dent in the edge. Clearly one of the reasons that natives often cut trees with long stumps. Because of very few good speciemens, I didn't have that luxury however.














To make the stave bend on a particular location and without serious cracking, the wood is thinned in the future bend. Thin from both sides and preferably a rather long section, to make the bend more gradual. Compared to the original, my bend is too short. Thus making the frame narrower than the original. To compensate for this, I think I will leave the frame slightly triangular. Below thinning the tree.














The rest of the sapling was debarked with the cannon bone scraper.














I used hot water to bend the wood. When the wood is fresh like this, you don't need much hot water to bend it. Notice the string holding it together while it's drying.

Elm Bow Update

The uneven places on the stave has now been whitteled off and the width finalized.














Also the rugged ends have been evened by cutting a notch all around and breaking it there.














Here is a photo of the stave, now drying slowly in some bushes nearby. I assume it I will not be able to continue on it for a few months, maybe I will start on a new one in the meantime...

Elm Bow Update

I wasn't able to completely finish the bulk of the wood working on my bow today. I got a long way though. There is a couple of things that should be noted about elm wood:

• Small pieces are rarely straight.
• If elm isn't perfectly straight and even, they are almost certain to warp.
• It's interlocking grain is hard to work with stone tools.
  

My piece has checked a little more sideways now, it still is on the advantageous side of things though, making the bow more centershot than it otherwise would. I am however very worried!

If this bow fails to come out in a reasonably good way, I will leave elm for a while and use a wood that causes less worries to the mind. Here is the progress, when it has been thinned properly and is bending fairly evenly I will start focusing on making the width the way I want it.

Elm Bow Update

Continued on my elm bow today. The thickness has been reduced and thinned down a little with the chopper and the sides have been planed down to the approximate width. Even though the stave was oiled liberally and has been stored in a tree it has dried up considerably on the surface. There is a slight sign (as yet, totally tolerable) of checking a little to one side, but I think I can remedy it by working it a little more on one side.

I use a sturdy flake as a drawknife. To protect my hands I have padded them with a piece of leather. I have shaped one limb yet. The stave is back in a tree to keep it from drying out quickly.














One point when working elm: Make sure the piece you are using is carved absolutely evenly. Otherwise it will check towards the thinner side.

Arrow Sizer Update

I know there is a lot of projects that are half-finished now, but please bear over with me, I will finish them eventually. :-) Some of the projects are quite substantial and much of it takes quite a lot of time so I will only post when I reach important tresholds in the process.

This is going to be an antler arrow sizer a little out of the ordinary. I want to carve an eagle out of the tines. I have an idea of how it's going to look. We'll see if it turns out that way too.

The first step is to scrape grooves into the soft core and break it off.














Next the break is ground smooth.














Drilling the hole to pass the arrow through is done with the recently made drill.














That's all of the progress for now. Hopefully I will be able to finish the bow-blank in a few days and post further progress.

Skin Pouch Update

For eight days I have had the skins in the water along with the alder bark. I checked upon the skins today and turned them, as parts were not totally submerged before. The skins show yet no signs of having soaked up any tannin, no change in colour whatsoever. I am beginning to think my solution is too weak. The ear skins are thinner than the leg hides, so I will probably take them out of the solution to dry if they show signs of changing colour in another week or so.

If I find time, I may add more bark to the solution at a point over the next days.

Elm Bow Update

The survival bow is fine, but I want one strong enough to bring down whatever I encounter. In this region the superior bow-wood is clearly elm (Ulmus glabra). There are however a few downsides to this wood. It is hard to find a properly straight bow-length piece and it has a seriously bad tendency to warp sideways. This has ruined several good bowstaves for me so, I hope this will not happen this time.

To reduce the risk of warping I will keep the bow-stave oiled and to dry it as slowly as possible, it will be seasoned outside. Also, cutting the wood in winter, when the sap is down, will hopefully help too. The bow will be worked green to it's near-finished dimentions and then dried.

I found a very good stave yesterday, it's quite remarkably straight for being elm and has smooth bark, which I have found to indicate good wood qualities. Coarse bark almost invariably means thin growth rings. It was cut down with an antler axe

After using the same axe to cut it to a more managable length, which is still much longer than the finished bow will be, it was split. To make sure that a major knot did not end up in on the back of a limb, the antler wedge was hammered through the knot to start the split.














I decided to split free the thick end first. When it comes to splitting wood, there are a few handy tricks:
- Hammer in wooden wedges from both sides, that will reduce the risk of the split running off to one side.
- Use a fork in a tree to guide the crack if it starts to run off to one side. Put a little more pressure to the thick side to get the crack bak in the middle.
- If you meet resistance at a point, use an antler wedge to drive through whatever is budging.

First below: Pounding in wedges from both sides.
Second below: Guiding the split with a tree fork.




























The best half was chosen and an approximate outline written on the belly side (inside) with charcoal. To measure the middle point of the bow, make one of the bark strips as long as the bow, fold it over and you have half the lenght of the bow. Photo is of the two halves, of which the left one was chosen.


















The antler axe proved ineffective for removing wood from sides of the bow, so I ended up with a combination of chopping with a core of flint and splitting in the budging places with the antler wedge. This stage is far from finished, and I will probably continue this work today.